Monthly Archives: February 2012

We so rarely sit down and think about what we are grateful for and what we have in our lives.

We are so accustomed to wanting more and to complaining about what we don’t have or what should be better, that we rarely open our eyes and take notice of the abundance of beauty and love we are actually surrounded by.

I saw this video just before Christmas and during a time when I was feeling somewhat uncertain about where I was and what I was doing and who I had around me. It changed my whole perspective and I truly believe it was of those moments when things just seemed to make sense.

I have actually transcribed it here, as I was choosing quotes for this blog and feel that it is all important, particularly the words of the elderly gentleman should be remembered.

I’ve been shooting time-lapse flowers non-stop 24 hours a day for over 30 years and to see them move is a dance I will never get tired of. Their beauty immerses us with colour, taste, touch. It also provides a third of the food we eat.

Beauty and seduction is [sic] us nature’s tool for survival because we protect what we fall in love with. It opens our hearts and makes us realise we are a part of nature and we are not separate from it. When we see ourselves in nature it also connects us to every one of us because it’s clear that it’s all connected and one.

When people see my images, a lot of times they’ll say “oh my god”. Have you ever wondered what that meant? Oh means it caught your attention. It makes you present, makes you mindful. The my means it connects with something deep inside your soul. It creates a gateway for your inner voice to rise up and be heard. And God is that personal journey we all want to be on, to be inspired, to feel like we’re connected to a universe that celebrates life.

Did you know that 80% of the information we receive comes through our eyes? And if you compare light energy to musical scales it would only be one octave that the naked eye could see right in the middle.

And aren’t we grateful for our brains that can take this electrical impulse that comes from light energy to create images in order for us to explore our world?

And aren’t we grateful that we have hearts that can feel these vibrations in order for us to feel the pleasure and the beauty of nature.

Nature’s beauty is a gift that cultivates appreciation and gratitude. So I have a gift I want to share with you today – a project I am working on called Happiness Revealed. And it’ll give us a glimpse into that perspective from the point of view of a child and an elderly man of that word.

You think this is just another day in your life. It’s not just another day – it’s the one day that is given to you today. It’s given to you, it’s a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now and the only appropriate response is gratefulness.

If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is. If you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.

Begin by opening your eyes and be surprised that you have eyes you can open. That incredible array of colours that is offered to us for our pure enjoyment.

Look at the sky, we so rarely look at the sky. We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment with clouds coming and going. We just think of the weather and even of the weather we don’t think of all the many nuances of weather. We just think of good weather and bad weather. This right now has unique weather. Maybe a kind exactly in that form will never come again. The formation of clouds in the sky that will never be the same that is right now.

Open your eyes – look at that. Look at the faces of people you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their face, A story that you could never fully fathom. Not only their own story, but of their ancestors. We only go back so far.

And in this present moment, on this day, all the people you will meet, all that life, of generations and from so many places all over the world flows together and meets you here like life giving you water if you only open your heart and drink.

Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilisation gives to us. You flip a switch and there is electric light. You turn a faucet and there is warm water and cold water and drinkable water. It’s a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience.

So these are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which we can open our heart.

And so I wish you that you will open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you. Then everyone who you meet on this day will be blessed by you. Just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch, just by your presence. Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you and then it will be a really good day.

It seems so long ago now that Melbourne’s Chinese community ran around the streets of the cbd with drums, dragons, phoenix’s and firecrackers.

As the Dragon weaves its way through the crowded side streets of Melbourne, you are invited to touch the it for good luck. Some even ran under and through it. The dragon actually “broke down” right by us, its leg fell off, so some emergency repairs had to be done, hence plenty of detailed photo opportunities!

All the Chinese businesses hung a lettuce up outside their front door, for the dragon to eat. Throughout the day was the smell of firecrackers, as the dragons visited each property to dance, eat the lettuce and well, from what I could see generally create a song and dance!